Trouble Saving Money? Harness Robots!

By Ben PopkenFebruary 16, 2009

Sometimes when people have trouble saving at least 10% of their income on a regular basis, it’s because it hurts too much. After you pay the bills, set aside money for groceries, booze and guns, it seems you don’t have enough left over to save with. So, what you can do is exploit “out of sight, out of mind,”

and set up a system that automatically saves for you. For instance, you can set up a recurring transfer that deducts at least 10% of your paycheck on payday to a high-interest online savings account. If you have direct deposit, you can ask your employer to split your pay, putting at least 10% in your account dedicated to savings and the rest in your regular account.

You’ll likely find you don’t miss the money you’re saving, and you still have enough cash left over for your synchronized cat-tossing tournament entrance fees.

I know it wasnt the purpose of the article, but OMFG I WANT THAT ROBOT NOWWWWWWW.

Damnit when are we going to be able to buy robots to do our bidding! What good is it being in the 21st centry and having a colored in the white house if I cant get a robot to service my hog! Somethings gotta give…

@Oranges w/ Cheese: This might sound funny, but one thing that worked for a roommate in college was that she literally took opaque Tupperware containers, put one credit card in the bottom of each one, filled the containers with water, and froze them solid. She marked on the top which card was in which container. Then if she REALLY needed a card to pay tuition or bills, she defrosted a container (NOT in the microwave). This gave her the necessary lag time to discourage her from running down to the mall every day.

I’ve taken a slightly different approach that I like even more. Instead of taking 10% of my paycheck and dumping it into a savings account, I take a flat sum of cash that I’m willing to live on and dump that into my checking account, all the remainder ends up in savings. This means that any raises I get (not getting one this year, but I did get at least inflationary raises for the last few years) end up entirely in savings. It’s a way to force myself to slowly cut down on my living costs at, essentially, the rate of inflation. :)

it’s amazing what you can learn to live without when you don’t have money. the only thing that’s really gotten to me is running out of diet soda, which constitutes a major part of breakfast. but then, once my head no longer feels like it’s collapsing in on itself, i’m fine.

@kittenfoo: You’re better off. Buy a box of tea bags and leave a few in a pitcher of water in the fridge overnight. Add sweetener and Bob’s yer uncle. Better than plain water and you get the same caffeinated kick.